Tobias Koch & Thibault Lac: Fool’s Gold

The composer Tobias Koch and the two dancers Thibault Lac and Stephen Thomson take the figure of the harlequin as their starting point and develop a performance for immersion in a world in which movement, sound and sculpture merge into an artistic exploration of performative languages. As an archetype of Italian commedia dell'arte and a recurring figure in art history, the harlequin offers the trio, in collaboration with visual artist Thore Wallert, a framework and at the same time a poetic means of reflecting on and breaking with traditional theater conventions. Through an open stage arrangement reminiscent of a street situation, the audience finds itself directly in an acoustic and visual landscape and shares a collective experience full of musical and choreographic intensity.

Thibault Lac studied architecture before completing the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (P.A.R.T.S) program in Brussels. He has performed in works by Ligia Lewis, Noé Soulier, Eleanor Bauer, Daniel Linehan, Mathilde Monnier, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Daniel Jeanneteau and Jérôme Bel, among others. He has danced several times in works by Trajal Harrell, in particular in his series Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church.

Tobias Koch studied audio design, composition and music theory at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel. He works as a sound designer and musician for film, performance, theater and visual arts. His collaborations for theater and dance have taken him to MoMA in New York, Documenta 14, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Wiener Festwochen and the Schauspielhaus Zürich, among others.

Duration: 30 min.

"Basel sound composer Tobias Koch and dancer Thibault Lac take a figure from theater history and turn it into our present with opulent mastery. [...] With bravura, the two succeeded in updating this theater archetype for a dancing present. But by no means only." -Timo Posselt - BZ Basel